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Nuggets' rally falls short as Golden State wins series in six games

Nuggets guard Ty Lawson takes a shot over the Warriors' Carl Landry in the first half Thursday in Oakland, Calif. View more photos. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

OAKLAND, Calif. —The Nuggets were there and then they were gone, disappearing under a snowfall of golden confetti. The Warriors won 92-88 on Thursday night, closing out Denver in Game 6 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

"We didn't lose this series tonight. This was a proud loss," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "This series was lost in Games 1 and 2. ... And that's on me."

The Nuggets lost Game 2 at home, and with it the home-court advantage they'd worked all season to secure.

Denver trailed Thursday by 18 points with 9:11 left, the gold, bold crowd rattling the Oracle Arena rafters. But the Nuggets clawed back and had a shot to tie the score in the final seconds.

In a crazy sequence, the Nuggets' Andre Iguodala hit a 3-pointer with 1:52 left, cutting the Warriors' lead to 88-82. Denver scored the next basket on a layup by Wilson Chandler with 1:14 left after he stole the ball under the basket following a Ty Lawson miss.

With Golden State up 88-84, Harrison Barnes made two foul shots for a six-point lead, but Iguodala was at it again, swishing a 3 with 1:02 left. After another Golden State turnover, Denver's Kenneth Faried hit 1-of-2 free throws to make it 90-88. After Iguodala stole the ball with 22 seconds left, Denver had a chance to tie or take the lead, but Chandler couldn't make a layup under heavy pressure with 11.5 seconds left.

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Golden State's Jarrett Jack was fouled with 7.3 left and he made two free throws to seal the win.

"We played our hearts out and never gave up, just fighting and fighting," Faried said.

The Warriors turned the ball over 10 times in the fourth quarter, but made their last 22 free throws. Denver, by contrast, missed 5-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter.

"We showed some guts down the stretch, but you've got to give them a lot of credit," Iguodala said. "I hope we learned a lot from this series. You can't wait until your backs are against the wall before you have that desperate activity."

The Nuggets were abysmal from the foul line all season and naturally they were abysmal in the biggest game of the season. Denver was 13-of-21 for the game while Golden State was 23-of-24.

Asked after the game what the younger players might have learned from this series, veteran Nuggets guard Andre Miller said: "Nothing, nothing. We got outplayed, we got outcoached, out-toughed."

Denver center JaVale McGee battles for the ball with Golden State's Andrew Bogut, left, in the first half Thursday in Oakland, Calif. View more photos. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

After a humdrum Game 1, Lawson emerged as Denver's best player in the following four games, as well he should have, for he'd been the best dude on this team for months. In Games 2-5, Lawson averaged 24.7 points and 9.5 assists, but he didn't have that Ty spark in Game 6, finishing with 17 points and six assists. He was unable to get the offense in sync.

Asked about walking off the court for the final time, point guard Lawson said: "It's tough man. It's been happening too much. It's the fourth time in a row for me, I'm getting kind of sick of it. But it just motivates you for the summer."

Entering the game, Golden State's Stephen Curry averaged 30.7 points and 10.3 assists in the three Warriors wins — 17 and 8.5 in the two losses.

Just like in Game 4, when Curry went "video game," the third quarter did in Denver. The Nuggets led 42-40 at halftime, but the Warriors sliced and diced Denver in the third quarter, taking an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter, led by Curry.

When Curry hit a 3 over Lawson, Golden State took a 47-44 lead with 9:33 left in the third quarter, the Warriors' first lead since 3-2. On the next possession, Curry hit a 3 again, this time after Lawson lunged past him, giving Golden State a six-point lead and forcing a Denver timeout.

"Every third quarter, Curry got loose against us," Karl said, "and when you miss shot after shot, it creates a frustration."

The Warriors continued to separate themselves due to the careful penetration and passing of Curry, who made things happen all quarter. He finished with 14 third-quarter points and three assists. When he dished it to Carl Landry for an up-and-under layup with 5:22 left, it proved to be a three-point play of its own, because Landry was fouled by Chandler and hit the free throw. That gave Golden State a 64-53 lead.

The Nuggets, as if they were down 50, kept hoisting 3s in the third quarter, even though they were the league's best at in-the-paint scoring. Denver was 1-for-9 on 3-point attempts.

Nuggets guard Corey Brewer was 0-for-4 in the third quarter, airballing one wide open 3-point attempt. He finished 1-of-8, the one make a layup.

The third-seeded Nuggets won a franchise NBA record 57 wins in the regular season, but the question still looms: Was this season a failure?

Faried called it a failure.

Basically, the Karl era can be divided in two — with Melo and without Melo. With Carmelo Anthony, Denver made it to the second round once. Since the February 2011 trade of Melo, the Nuggets lost in the first round to the Thunder and Lakers with their rebuilt, star-less squad. Now you can add the Warriors to the list.

This season, Denver was supposed to take a big step forward. Instead, the Nuggets were tripped up in the postseason, sputtering another great regular season away.

"I think this series showed we were young — they out-executed us in many areas," said Iguodala, who finished Thursday with 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists. "We were known for our rebounding and to be able to push the tempo in the regular season, and they kind of saw that and beat us in that area."

3-Pointers

The Denver Post's Christopher Dempsey revisits three questions raised before Game 6.

1. How physical will Game 6 be? After all that postgame talk Tuesday, and Mark Jackson getting fined $25,000 by the league for his remarks, there were just two fouls called in the opening quarter. The game was not nearly as chippy as Game 5.

2. Will the supporting cast show up again? Other than Andre Iguodala's 24 points (including 5-of-8 from 3-point range), Nuggets guard Ty Lawson again took the offense in his hands with 17 points. But he shot just 7-of-21 from the field. The biggest trouble was Kosta Koufos and his minus-21 while on the court.

3. Can the Nuggets force a Game 7? For the first half, it looked as if the series would be coming back to Denver for a finale Saturday night, but the Warriors blew open the game in the third quarter. But it was far from over. After 10 turnovers by Golden State in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets got within three points with a minute left after a big run. Denver had a chance to tie it at 90 with 11 seconds to play but missed two shots on the possession and the rally fell short. The sixth-seeded Warriors will open the conference semifinals on Monday at San Antonio. The Nuggets' next game will be in the fall.

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